Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services in Chemung County

A new trend among young drinkers called Vodka eyeballing entails poring hard liquor directly in the eye for a quicker high. Videos of this disturbing trend are spreading on YouTube and Twitter. Two experts talk about its repercussions.

Just when we thought we were in the clear by getting Four Loko off our shelves, Canna Cola comes up with Marijuana infused soda. Each 12-oz bottle comes with 35-65 milligrams of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannibis. It even comes in yummy flavors like the Dr Pepper-like Doc Weed, the lemon-lime Sour Diesel, the grape-flavored Grape Ape and the orange-flavored Orange Kush.

There are currently 15 states where marijuana is legal. The increased legalization of marijuana is not helping children “say no.” Youth are using marijuana illegally, and in their defense saying “but it’s medicine, so it’s ok.” Now they are making marijuana fun and delicious? What happened to using it as a medicine? Yeah, those who have been prescribed it say they don’t like to smoke it, but last I checked they weren’t making other drugs easier to take, at least not to this extent.

While Canna Cola may claim there is nothing wrong with their product, they use the tag line “12 Mind Blowing Ounces” on each label. They also use bright colors and animated characters on top of the fact that it is a soda, which makes it sound like they are targeting children.

Canna Cola’s makers plan to sell it to medical-marijuana dispensaries in Colorado starting next month, and hope to launch it in California by the spring.

Studies around the world have proven the adverse effects of second hand smoke on people surrounding a smoker. Statistics from the World Health Organization show that over 1 billion people smoke world wide, and that about 5 million people die each year as a result of tobacco smoking. This means that somebody dies as a result of cigarette smoking every six seconds. 2/3 of all the people who die as a result of smoke, or second hand smoke, will be children.

According to the British medical journal The Lancet, “as many as 40 percent of children, 35 percent of women, and 33 percent of men [who] are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke indoors” will become sick because of second hand smoke.

Studies further show that 80% of tobacco smokers live in under developed areas where the effects of smoking and second hand smoke are more severe and detrimental.

“The study authors estimate that 165,000 children under the age of 5 die each year from lower respiratory infections caused by second-hand smoke – and most of these deaths occur in Africa and south Asia.”

This is a problem that plagues most of the world. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that more than half of the children in the United States between the ages of 3 and 11 have signs of second hand smoke in the blood.

A huge part of the problem is that people don’t know how their smoking affects the people around them. John Samet and Heather Wip fli, public health experts from the University of Southern California, believe that if parents were educated on the health risks that are presented to their children, they would not smoke inside the house. They did a study that showed that 80% of parents who smoked, smoked near their children and/or inside the house.

By eliminating smoking indoors, a child’s exposure to cigarette smoke is reduced immediately and the negative medical effects of second hand smoke are decreased substantially.

Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.

British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.

Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison. Read more…

An herb-and-chemical compound sold legally as incense in the United States – with the exception of ten states, including New York, according to the National Conference of Legislators – is sending many who smoke it to the hospital, according to a July 29, 2010 report by news agency Reuters.

The compound, known as K2, interacts with brain receptors in a way that is said to be very similar to marijuana. But unlike marijuana, little is known about the chemical makeup of the compound.

Officials said more and more people who smoke “synthetic marijuana” have reported to emergency rooms and poison-control centers with symptoms ranging from anxiety, hypertension, and vomiting to severe paranoia and hallucinations.

U.S. poison-control centers received 13 calls related to K2 a year ago, while 766 cases have been reported in the first half of 2010, said Anthony Scaizo, medical director for the Missouri Poison Center.

The concern, according to Scaizo, is that the surge “may represent the tip of an iceberg.”

Trinity of Chemung County wants to know if you feel enough is being done to warn kids against the dangers of this product, and what you would do if someone you knew were using synthetic marijuana.

Hospital emergency department visits involving underage drinking nearly doubled during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, according to a new study by SAMHSA. The study reveals that daily underage drinking-related visits to hospital emergency departments are 87 percent higher during the Fourth of July weekend than they are on an average day in July. Trinity of Chemung County was curious how the community is going to take precautions to have a safe holiday.

A variant of a gene involved in communication among brain cells has a direct influence on alcohol consumption in mice, according to a new study by scientists supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Army

Scientists do not know yet whether a similar gene variant, with a similar effect on alcohol consumption, exists in humans.

Trinity of Chemung County is interested in what you believe contributes to addiction. Is it genetic, environmental, or both. Please let us know. Thanks for your support.